building hand coordination and speed

Ok, I have been playing guitar for many years.. But I never sat and practiced for hours a day every day like I should have.I know the routine of economy of motion and all that.. doesnt seem to work for me.I am happy with my abilities, but I never really played lead guitar. I know a bit of pentatonic minor.

What I am looking for is an exercise, to build up my speed while coordinating my two hands.. it seems when i try to play faster, they dont work well together anymore.

I know the routine of economy of motion and all that.. doesnt seem to work for me.

Quote by Cisc

What I am looking for is an exercise, to build up my speed while coordinating my two hands.. it seems when i try to play faster, they dont work well together anymore.

I don't mean to sound like an ass, but if that economy of motion thing does not work for you the chance is that you have not practiced correctly. I am just saying that cause the majority of guitarists i've met, and the ones i've taught that told me something like that often havent. I once asked one of my students to record himself practicing by all these guidelines and what i saw was what i expected, he was not good at practicing.

Practicing to become a really good guitar player takes time, no doubt. But there are alot of factors that go into it aswell. Ecnonomy of motion is just one of them. Relaxation, accuracy and cleanness is some of the others. PERFECT PRACTICE is the key to everything. Examine yourself playing and see what can be improved/what is bad/what you do about it, or even better, record yourself playing something and put it here so we can help you even more.

For the other part of your post. ANYTHING is good for practicing coordination between your two hands. As for speed, that comes as a by-product of the relaxed, accurate and clean PERFECT practice.

Fusion and jazz musician, a fan of most music.

Quote by Guthrie Govan

“If you steal from one person it's theft, and if you steal from lots of people it's research”

Quote by Chick Corea

"Only play what you hear. If you don't hear anything, don't play anything."

do this like. everday lol.Good exercise to make finger coordination a lot better and also you can go as fast as you want, building speed. But if you continuously mess up then go slower, also stretches out fingers a bit so you can reach a bit longer.e---------------------1-2-3-4B-------------------1-2-3-4D----------------1-2-3-4G------------1-2-3-4A---------1-2-3-4E-----1-2-3-4(bad drawing. i know)

do this like. everday lol.Good exercise to make finger coordination a lot better and also you can go as fast as you want, building speed. But if you continuously mess up then go slower, also stretches out fingers a bit so you can reach a bit longer.e---------------------1-2-3-4B-------------------1-2-3-4D----------------1-2-3-4G------------1-2-3-4A---------1-2-3-4E-----1-2-3-4(bad drawing. i know)

This isn't a good exercise, it's way too easy to play it badly and even if you do end up playing it perfectly it's no use musically.

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If you start to mess up and loose coordination between your hands, it is because you are going too fast. You need to slow down. If you are constantly playing too fast you are training that sloppyness into your hands. As with drumming, play and practice at a comfortable speed, and gradually increase it (5bpm steps are good. Perfect some exercises at the tempo before increasing it). Occasionally you can do speed drills and really push your limits, but try to spend most of your practice at a tempo which is quick but still comfortable. This lets you hear tiny details and work to correct them (improved coordination and cleanliness), and the speed comes naturally over time.

This isn't a good exercise, it's way too easy to play it badly and even if you do end up playing it perfectly it's no use musically.

It can be a good exercise it just depends on how you do it. If you do it like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvhZ80OsuTQ&feature=player_embeddedthen it's probably at least going to be a bit beneficial as it gets you focusing on exactly what your left hand is doing. That being said, there's obviously better and more musical ways to achieve the same thing, however given that 1-2-3-4 is so mundane and easy to get your head around it lends itself fairly well to paying attention to exactly what your fingers are doing.

Really though if I'm going to do chromatic exercises I'd much rather try more toungue-twister, finger confusing combinations as ultimately at some point you're going to probably going to come across all of the groups of 3 within it.

In terms of it not being musical, I get what you're saying, it's not in and of itself, however I've seen some guitarists (notably Guthrie Govan) use chromatic licks very effectively before, though it's usually in the middle of something a bit more interesting and the notes only really serve to fill a gap.

And to answer TS - you'll hear this a lot around these parts but speed is a by product of accuracy. In terms of economy of motion; it's important, but it's one of many things that are required. And synchronising the left and right hand, the best thing to do is to slow down quite a bit (try, say, 50bpm quarter notes or something) and play an exercise (any old exercise will probably do, preferably one that uses all the fingers and maybe some string crossing or position shifting depending on what you specifically want to work on) and focusing really hard on making sure that your finger frets a note at exactly the same time as you pick it. You'll notice that this is harder to do when descending as it's important that the finger lifts off in time for the next one coming down. Your target is to get each note to ring for the whole quarter note with as little gap between notes as possible. Doing something like this at really slow speeds will really highlight issues with hand synchronisation.

I'm in a similar situation in that I've been playing the guitar for a number of years (on and off) but never really sat down and learned to play FAST. So, just recently I picked up the guitar again, developed some lovely calluses, and got stuck into almost nothing but speed picking licks. A good start is this generic shred lick:

I always run through this during my practice, and move it up the neck. I actually adapted to outside picking for this one among others as I find it cleans up better than economy picking, so every string change is an upstroke. It was awkward at first and took a couple days to get used to, but now its like second nature, and it feels much better.Once you get comfortable with it, start adding others, Paul Gilbert is a great source of shred/fast picking licks!

I'd also advise choosing a song you like that has some speed picking in it, and learning that song. I started learning Technical Difficulties and I've noticed a huge improvement in this area of my playing in less than a couple of weeks of practicing every day.

P.S. I don't know if you already do this, but it helps to break down large licks into sections to keep you on track, then glue those sections together. For eg. in the lick above, the first section would end at the first "9 10 12" on the D string. Second section at first "9 11 12" on the G and so on...

haha! right on guys, thanks.guess I just need to hammer away at exercises. I have been playing many years. I just never sat and drilled like I should..

I would like some licks to learn, anywhere i can get some licks to start adding to my playing?I play metal.

Learn songs you like.. There are plenty of metal songs that have challenging passages in them, pick one you like, sit down, break it down, practice perfectly and give it time. That's the best advice i can give you. Learning music you like is the best thing you can do, and if you just break it down and practice well and efficiently, your technique will get better with time. It's one of those things that takes time to develop, Rome was not built on one day, you know.

Fusion and jazz musician, a fan of most music.

Quote by Guthrie Govan

“If you steal from one person it's theft, and if you steal from lots of people it's research”

Quote by Chick Corea

"Only play what you hear. If you don't hear anything, don't play anything."

I am constantly learning songs (since i am in a music school), many of the songs i play there are pretty easy, like Classic rock, funk and some pop. At home, i practice way more advanced stuff. Like progressive rock/metal, jazz and fusion. I have currently been practicing getting the solo to Constant Motion up to speed, cleanly and relaxed. I have done this for about two months, starting at about 20% speed, i am now at 80%. It takes time getting hard parts down, but i'd say they are worth practicing. You should of course not by all means ONLY practice really hard stuff, but i think it has its place. So pick something and just keep at it, and practice simpler stuff aswell.

Fusion and jazz musician, a fan of most music.

Quote by Guthrie Govan

“If you steal from one person it's theft, and if you steal from lots of people it's research”

Quote by Chick Corea

"Only play what you hear. If you don't hear anything, don't play anything."